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Warren-WS1D and the gang at Nearfest.....

WEDNESDAY EDITION: A bit nippy here today, in the 30's....Quite the antenna farm....Pressing your luck on a bridge...North Carolina genius..

BRILLIANT MARKETING

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Maryland's comptroller is accusing brewer Anheuser-Busch of marketing binge drinking to college students in light of the special release of a keg-like 77-pack of Natural Light beer that sold out before the school's homecoming weekend. "They're obviously promoting binge drinking by young people," said Comptroller Peter Franchot, who is responsible for the taxation and regulation of alcohol in Maryland.

Large beverage companies have opposed Franchot's efforts to promote locally-made craft beers, which he says create local jobs.

"The big brewers like Budweiser who are selling 77 cans of beer for .39 cents each to college kids, they don't like craft brewers, unless they own them," Franchot said.

Franchot is calling for an investigation of his allegations that large brewing companies have corrupted Maryland legislators with questionable campaign contributions and favors.

The 77-packs of Natural Light were a special promotion that was only rolled out in stores surrounding College Park, Maryland.

The news went viral on social media, with students in far-away states Tweeting plans for road trips to come to buy one of the unique packages.

The 77-packs sold out quickly, with some stores reporting students lining up to purchase them as soon as they were unloaded from delivery trucks.

Students said they were struck by the packaging, which resembled the shape of a keg and could be used as a portable cooler for the cans of beer inside.

"I think it's to get around the keg ban here," one student said.

"It's brilliant marketing," said another. "We only had it here and they make it like it was a one-time thing so that caused some of the hype."

DX Group Seeks Reconsideration of Kure Atoll DXpedition Permit Application

The Pacific Islands DXpedition Group (PIDXG) is hoping to gain approval of its latest application for a DXpedition from Kure Atoll — currently the 7th most-wanted DXCC entity according to Club Log. The last ham radio activity on Kure Atoll took place in 2005. Once home to a US Coast Guard LORAN station, Kure Atoll is a part of Hawaii, although separated from the rest of the state by Midway Island. It is included within the Hawaii State Seabird Sanctuary at Kure Atoll and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands State Marine Refuge. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) formally denied PIDXG’s prior application last June.

“The official position was that Amateur Radio ‘cannot be conducted with adequate safeguards for the resources and ecological integrity’ of Kure Atoll,” PIDIXG said in an October 13 news release. According to PIDXG, officials contended that its antennas would pose a risk to the island’s avian population. The group said their application assured that they would follow US Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS) guidelines and protocols used by other DXpeditions in National Wildlife Refuges (NWR). They also said that it they’ve adhered to all necessary procedural and application guidelines in requesting access to public land where Amateur Radio already is determined as an “existing use” by the federal agencies overseeing Kure and other Pacific National Wildlife Refuges.

“It is the understanding of PIDXG that there have been no documented instances of negative impact to the ‘ecological integrity’ at any NWR from any previous Amateur Radio activity,” the PIDXG said in its news release. “Thankfully, through the guidance of the oversight agencies and the protocols directing radio operations from these environmentally sensitive areas, it can be said that Amateur Radio has maintained an impeccable track record in this regard.”

PIDXG said no provisions are in place to appeal the decision, although a letter accompanying the denial package indicated that the group was welcome to submit another application in the future, which it did on August 6.

US Senator highlights ham radio's disaster response role

US Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi has tweeted about the work radio amateurs have been doing in assisting with disaster response efforts in Florida after Hurricane Michael

He notes these trained volunteers help transmit critical communications to areas with no electricity, phone, or internet service.

He included a link to the WFLA TV News broadcast by Victoria Price in which she interviewed Lee Paulet KK4VNZ. Watch the report at
https://www.wfla.com/news/local-news/citrus-county/amateur-radio-operators-provide-hurricane-aid-through-the-airwaves/1517963826

Senator Wicker's Tweet
https://twitter.com/SenatorWicker/status/1052262347992178689

TUESDAY EDITION: Well the sun is out and somehow I managed to miss the Monday edition....I pulled out another radio I had in the closet and I have been playing with it. It is an old Tentec Argonaut V, a 20 watt all mode qrp hf radio. It works great on CW but I made a few contacts on 40 SSB for the hell of it. I received nice reports. It has a really nice receiver and also runs AM and FM. As with all Tentec radio's, you had to be a TT lover to buy one because they were expensive and were not as "polished" as the jap rigs.....fun radio for portable cw.....Elizabeth Warren is getting crazier by the day,  she had a DNA report which shows she might have .002% Indian blood a dozen generations ago. the Indian nation released a statement saying she is a bag of shit and it takes more than that to call your self Indian....scary stuff....a little FYI FOR MY BUDDIES UP NORTH GEARING UP FOR HUNTING SEASON....Why would anyone eat a Tide detergent pod?....

Bidding in ARRL On-Line Auction Set to Begin on October 19

Don't miss this event, you get the chance to buy radios for more than the cost of it new....you gotta be a special kind of stupid to do this.

More than 230 items will be on the block as bidding gets under way on Friday, October 19, for the 13th Annual ARRL On-Line Auction. The auction will continue through Friday, October 26. An auction preview opens on Wednesday, October 17.

The 2018 auction includes lab-tested QST “Product Review” gear, vintage books, used equipment, and one-of-a-kind items, plus the ARRL Lab team has contributed four of the very popular “mystery boxes.”

Some premier “Product Review” items up for bid include the Apache Labs ANAN-8000DLE HF and 6-meter SDR transceiver, an Icom IC-R8600 communications receiver, a Yaesu FT-991 HF/VHF/UHF transceiver, BridgeCom Systems BCM-144 2-meter mobile transceiver, and many more items.

The auction also will offer items donated from the popular television series “Last Man Standing,” starring Tim Allen, an actual radio amateur who portrays the fictional Mike Baxter, KA0XTT, in the show, which has featured ham radio in some episodes.

Among book offerings in the auction are History of QRP in the US 1924 – 1960, a special defense edition of The Radio Amateur’s Handbook from 1942, and a 1958 ARRL Handbook. 

Proceeds from the annual On-Line Auction benefit ARRL education programs. These include activities to license new hams, strengthen Amateur Radio Emergency Service® training, offer continuing technical and operating education, and create instructional materials.

All bidders must register (your arrl.org user ID and password will not work on the auction site). If you have registered for a previous ARRL On-Line Auction, you may use the same log-in information. If you have forgotten your user ID or password, click on the “Help” tab for instructions on how to retrieve these credentials. Make sure your correct address and other information are up to date. The auction site only accepts Visa and Mastercard. 

ARRL Executive Committee to Meet in Minneapolis

The ARRL Executive Committee (EC) is set to meet on Saturday, October 20, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, will preside. In addition to reports from the President and the Chief Executive Officer and Secretary, Barry Shelley, N1VXY, the EC will hear a status report of the ad hoc committee to draft updates/changes to Code of Conduct.

ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, will report on FCC and regulatory issues, as well as on local antenna and RF interference cases that ARRL is tracking. He also will offer an update on legislative matters, including the Amateur Radio Parity Act.

The EC will hear a status report on a pending new memorandum of understanding on the Amateur Auxiliary between ARRL and the FCC. It also will receive an update from the ad hoc committee reviewing rules and regulations for advisory committees to the Board of Directors.

The Executive Committee is tasked by the ARRL Bylaws to address League matters between regular Board meetings. The Board will meet in January for its first scheduled meeting of 2019. 

SUNDAY EDITION: Let's hope the Red Sox get motivated today, yikes...even worse, BC football won....sunny and bright today, why couldn't that happen at Nearfest. I heard numbers were down, some weather related, some just plain dwindling numbers as hams become silent keys and no new growth in numbers. Don't forget, people aren't buying junk anymore or at least not like they used to. Hams are buying SDR radios and newer technology. I recently sold my TenTec OMNI VII for $900 on Ebay, it was over $2500 new with filters, tuner, and mike....the new Icom 7300 does it better for less than $1000. I think the 7300 has brought the house down on used ham gear pricing, all by itself....

Northern Florida ARES Teams Handle Hurricane Duty

Over the past week, Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) teams in the ARRL Northern Florida Section went on alert and some activated to support emergency communication before and during Hurricane Michael.

Miller Norton, W4EMN, the Communications Watch Officer at the Duval County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Jacksonville, Florida, was monitoring SARnet — a UHF-linked repeater network in Florida — when he heard an urgent call for help that needed to be sent to the State EOC in Tallahassee. All other forms of communication were out, but Norton was able to relay the message to via Amateur Radio. He also passed along messages and requests from the Jackson County EOC to the American Red Cross. Norton said officials in Tallahassee and Jackson County were both “incredibly grateful” for the way the SARnet system functioned during the weather emergency.

Jackson County Emergency Coordinator Ricky Whittington, KD4AST, deployed to the county EOC in Marianna.

“We took a direct hit by the center of the storm at 140 MPH,” he told Clay County ARES Assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC) and Public Information Officer Scott Roberts, KK4ECR. “[The] county maintenance building across the road from the EOC was picked up and slammed into the north side and over the roof of the EOC just prior to the eye passing over.”

The incident took out the HF antenna, which has since been restored. Whittington said the internet failed, as did cell service for a while. Hams have been passing material and resource orders to the State EOC via HF and SARnet.

Whittington reported “total devastation of Bay, Jackson, and Gulf counties,” with loss of electrical power and water service, in addition to damage in Franklin, Holmes, and Leon counties. “[The] only mode of communications after the eye came across was ham radio, until we got minimal cell service a few hours ago,” he reported on October 11.

ARES teams in other counties reported activations, although some teams remained in monitoring mode.

  • Escambia County ARES activated on October 9 at 2300 CDT to support two shelters — special needs and pet-friendly — until they closed on October 10 at 1700 CDT
  • Although the Alachua County EOC activated at Level I, the ARES volunteers never activated beyond Level 3. However, AEC Susan Halbert, KG4VWI, spent a day at the EOC coordinating with emergency managers in case they needed to open a shelter for local evacuees or for host county operation. No hams were needed for shelters, but one or two shelters opened for outside evacuees.
  • The Gilchrist County EOC activated at Level 2 and shelters opened. The local 2-meter repeater was excellent, and no power outages were reported. ARES primarily remained at Level 3 in monitoring mode. Daily nets were held for hurricane weather briefings and the Northern Florida Section Emergency Net on HF was able to provide up-to-date storm location information to the State EOC when it lost internet service.
  • Citrus County ARES was called to activate on Monday, October 9, at 5 PM CDT. At that time, emergency managers had opened four shelters, serving 38 clients (and 13 pets). Telephone and internet service remained operational throughout the weather event, although ARES volunteers staffed two shelters on a precautionary basis, as well as the EOC at activation. All shelters closed by 6 AM on Wednesday, October 11. Citrus County ARES volunteers covered two back-to-back 12-hour shifts at the EOC. ARES personnel stood down at 6 PM on Tuesday, October 10.

Special callsign to commemorate the end of World War 1

At approximately 05:00 on Monday 11 November 1918, the Armistice was signed in a railway carriage of Marshall Foch's special train located in the forest at Rethondes in France on the western front.

At 11:00 on this Monday, 11 November 1918, the roar of guns ceased, peace and silence finally descended on the western front ending the First World War. It is estimated that close to 9,5 million soldiers, sailors and airmen of all sides died in the Great War.

SARL News report that in South Africa, the special call ZS100WWI will be active from 1 to 30 November 2018 in remembrance of the South Africans who were involved in the 'War to end all Wars' - we think of the sinking of the SS Mendi, the battle for Delville Wood and the Battle of Square Hill.

Special callsign to commemorate the end of World War 1

At approximately 05:00 on Monday 11 November 1918, the Armistice was signed in a railway carriage of Marshall Foch's special train located in the forest at Rethondes in France on the western front.

At 11:00 on this Monday, 11 November 1918, the roar of guns ceased, peace and silence finally descended on the western front ending the First World War. It is estimated that close to 9,5 million soldiers, sailors and airmen of all sides died in the Great War.

SARL News report that in South Africa, the special call ZS100WWI will be active from 1 to 30 November 2018 in remembrance of the South Africans who were involved in the 'War to end all Wars' - we think of the sinking of the SS Mendi, the battle for Delville Wood and the Battle of Square Hill.

WEEKEND EDITION: It rained everywhere at Nearfest according to a lot of folks....except at Joe's camp site, it only misted. Joe always picks a site where the weather is great....

Interview with Howard Michel, WB2ITX, the ARRL’s new CEO

Dan KB6NU, publisher of the 'No Nonsense' amateur radio podcast writes

I’m very excited about this episode. After reading about the selection of the new ARRL CEO, I kind of joked with my co-host Tom, KB5RF, that we should get him on our podcast. Tom said, “Well, why not?” So, I asked, and he agreed!

I think that you’ll find this to be a great interview. Howard has won me over, and I hope that he’ll win you over, too.

Dan KB6NU

Listen to the podcast here: https://nononsenseamateurradio.com/episode-7-an-interview-with-howard-michel-wb2itx-the-arrls-new-ceo/

Northern Florida ARES Teams Handle Hurricane Duty

Over the past week, Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) teams in the ARRL Northern Florida Section went on alert and some activated to support emergency communication before and during Hurricane Michael.

Miller Norton, W4EMN, the Communications Watch Officer at the Duval County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Jacksonville, Florida, was monitoring SARnet — a UHF-linked repeater network in Florida — when he heard an urgent call for help that needed to be sent to the State EOC in Tallahassee. All other forms of communication were out, but Norton was able to relay the message to via Amateur Radio. He also passed along messages and requests from the Jackson County EOC to the American Red Cross. Norton said officials in Tallahassee and Jackson County were both “incredibly grateful” for the way the SARnet system functioned during the weather emergency.

Jackson County Emergency Coordinator Ricky Whittington, KD4AST, deployed to the county EOC in Marianna.

“We took a direct hit by the center of the storm at 140 MPH,” he told Clay County ARES Assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC) and Public Information Officer Scott Roberts, KK4ECR. “[The] county maintenance building across the road from the EOC was picked up and slammed into the north side and over the roof of the EOC just prior to the eye passing over.”

The incident took out the HF antenna, which has since been restored. Whittington said the internet failed, as did cell service for a while. Hams have been passing material and resource orders to the State EOC via HF and SARnet.

Whittington reported “total devastation of Bay, Jackson, and Gulf counties,” with loss of electrical power and water service, in addition to damage in Franklin, Holmes, and Leon counties. “[The] only mode of communications after the eye came across was ham radio, until we got minimal cell service a few hours ago,” he reported on October 11.

ARES teams in other counties reported activations, although some teams remained in monitoring mode.

  • Escambia County ARES activated on October 9 at 2300 CDT to support two shelters — special needs and pet-friendly — until they closed on October 10 at 1700 CDT
  • Although the Alachua County EOC activated at Level I, the ARES volunteers never activated beyond Level 3. However, AEC Susan Halbert, KG4VWI, spent a day at the EOC coordinating with emergency managers in case they needed to open a shelter for local evacuees or for host county operation. No hams were needed for shelters, but one or two shelters opened for outside evacuees.
  • The Gilchrist County EOC activated at Level 2 and shelters opened. The local 2-meter repeater was excellent, and no power outages were reported. ARES primarily remained at Level 3 in monitoring mode. Daily nets were held for hurricane weather briefings and the Northern Florida Section Emergency Net on HF was able to provide up-to-date storm location information to the State EOC when it lost internet service.
  • Citrus County ARES was called to activate on Monday, October 9, at 5 PM CDT. At that time, emergency managers had opened four shelters, serving 38 clients (and 13 pets). Telephone and internet service remained operational throughout the weather event, although ARES volunteers staffed two shelters on a precautionary basis, as well as the EOC at activation. All shelters closed by 6 AM on Wednesday, October 11. Citrus County ARES volunteers covered two back-to-back 12-hour shifts at the EOC. ARES personnel stood down at 6 PM on Tuesday, October 10.
  • Duval County activated to Level 3 monitoring status along with the activation of the Duval County EOC. No shelters opened in Duval County, and there were no reports of serious damage.
  • Clay County also activated to Level 3 monitoring, when two tornadoes touched down in the county. No shelters were opened, and no official activations were requested.   

 

Amateur Radio Newsline Report- rehash of the week's news...

BREAKING NEWS: BRACING FOR HURRICANE MICHAEL

PAUL/ANCHOR: We open this week with breaking news. As Amateur Radio Newsline went to production, northern Florida was being slammed by Hurricane Michael. The ARRL asked Field Organization leaders to keep them apprised of its emergency frequencies, activation status and any requests for equipment to assist if necessary. WX4NHC, the amateur radio station at the National Weather Center, was activated as of early Wednesday, October 10th, as was the VoIP Hurricane Net and the SATERN's Southern Territory SSB Net. The Cuban Federation of Radio Amateurs reported emergency nets were up and running on 40 and 80 meters, in digital modes and on SSB. The storm was expected to make landfall on the Florida Panhandle and hit southern Alabama and south-central Georgia and North Carolina declared a state of emergency. The VoIP Hurricane Net requested that hams in the hurricane's path or with relay messages into it provide surface and damage reports for relay into WX4NHC. For story updates, please visit Amateur Radio Newsline's page on Facebook.

SATELLITE ENTHUSIASTS' HELP FROM ABOVE

PAUL/ANCHOR: If you've ever thought you might enjoy a QSO via satellite, there'a a new forum especially for newcomers. Ed Durrant DD5LP has that story.

ED: The amateur radio satellite community keeps growing – and so does the number of satellites. Now the universe of online satellite forums has also grown and added one more venue, as reported by the president of AMSAT-Deutschland Peter Gülzow DB2OS. He has announced on the AMSAT Bulletin Board that the new forum is geared especially toward newcomers in the hopes of opening up a new experience for amateurs and sharing encouragement and tips for first-timers.
Although AMSAT-Deutschland is hoping as many people will register as possible, guests are also welcome to stop by and visit. The topics are expected to be extensive and are designed to encourage wide-ranging discussions. Peter noted that especially with the launch later this year of Qatar’s Es’hail 2 communications satellite and its amateur radio payload, there’s plenty of room for more satellite communicators. AMSAT-DL has been providing the commercial Qatari satellite project with technical support. Once it is in orbit, it will be capable of linking hams from Thailand to Brazil and will supply the first amateur radio geostationary communications.
Satellite enthusiasts – or hams who would like to become one – can find the forum at this address:
forum dot amsat dash dl dot org (forum.amsat-dl.org)

'PEGGY SUE' WAS ROCK AND ROLL AND RADIO

PAUL/ANCHOR: Our next story celebrates a Silent Key who music fans may have only known through a song lyric. Andy Morrison K9AWM explains.

ANDY: Music-lovers of a certain age will remember Buddy Holly’s classic hit “Peggy Sue” from 1957 and certainly Texans of a certain age might even have known Peggy Sue Gerron, the young girl from Lubbock, Texas who inspired the rockabilly number.
Amateur radio operators of a certain age however may remember Peggy Sue as the former K5PSG. First licensed as KE5AKW in 2004, she was able to get the vanity call later. She wasn’t exactly an aspiring ham however when her former high school classmate Holly turned her into song lyric. Holly died in 1959 in a plane crash that killed two other rock-and-rollers. When she took part in special event station W5B in Lubbock, which commemorated Holly in 2004, she was hooked and got her ticket later that year.
Though her license expired in 2014, we can still consider Peggy Sue Gerron a Silent Key. She died on October 1st at the age of 78.

PARACHUTE MOBILE JUMPS TO CONCLUSION

PAUL/ANCHOR: Look - up in the sky! It's time again for Parachute Mobile, as we hear from Mike Askins KE5CXP.

MIKE: Parachute Mobile is what a team of skydiving hams for whom “going on the air” means being IN the air are calling themselves. They are holding the last of this year’s missions on the 20th of October to coincide with Pacificon, the Pacific Division Conference of the ARRL, taking place in San Ramon, California. While the hams make their jumps from a small plane elsewhere, the team will have a presence at the Marriott Hotel where a GOTA station will be set up to help convention-goers make contact with the skydivers. Two overhead monitors will also livestream the action as the jumps happen, starting at 10 am local time.

This will be Mission 33 and the jumpers will be Mark AF6IM and Rob KC6TYD, using their own call signs as they call QRZ from beneath their parachutes. They will be operating on 146.430 simplex, 14.250 on HF and on EchoLink at NE6RD-L. Hams who make contact are being asked to send an email to skydivinghams at gmail dot com (skydivinghams@gmail.com) with details such as the jumper’s name, the jump number and the time of the contact.

NEW HAMS MAKE REPEATER HISTORY IN YELLOWSTONE

PAUL/ANCHOR: If you think newcomers to this hobby can't make a difference, guess again. Neil Rapp WB9VPG shares this tale of a triumphant repeater project.

NEIL: Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the US. It's around 63 miles north to south, and 54 miles east to west. About 4 million people visit the park each year. With a park this size in a sparsely populated area, communication options are slim at best. But that's where ham radio came in. About 3 years ago, Michael Kalter, W8CI, the spokesperson for the Dayton Hamvention and his wife Linda, W8AAV were asked to teach a class on amateur radio at a ranch in Paradise Valley just outside of Gardiner, Montana. They programmed a 2 meter radio with all the repeater listings for the region they could find. They were shocked when they arrived.

MICHAEL: I was using 50 watts, but it's pretty depressing. I could not make any contacts at all... couldn't even light up any of the repeaters. And, so this kind of led us to begin mapping out ideas of how to possibly locate a 2 meter repeater in such a way to cover large areas of the park. We really emphasized just how important this repeater could be for the region.

NEIL: Twenty-five eager students took the challenge of learning about amateur radio. Linda, put her teaching skills to use, and the class graduated some new hams in a 2 day crash course. Recently, they learned of the fruits of their labor.

MICHAEL: I got an email the other day that was just absolutely astonishing... that a group of them had worked really hard and they started NYARC, North Yellowstone Amateur Radio Club. And, it's a recognized as a non profit in the Montana corporation. So that just happened on August the 1st. So giving these classes... I want to recognize that my wife is a professional teacher, and she really worked hard with Lauren Clarke, KB1YDD at ARRL and also with Gordon West, and had a lot of his material and CDs in tow, as well as Ward Silver's book. So that was what we used, and she had mapped the whole program out. And now, if you're around Gardiner, actually if you're anywhere from on highway 89 from Livingston all the way to the other side of Lamar Valley (and that's only 10 miles west of the Silver Gate entrance... beautiful, beautiful part of Yellowstone)... but it has coverage on the repeater is 146.98 and that has a 100 Hertz tone. So tune into that. Acutally, they are having... they are active with nets and things like that and there's usually someone monitoring that. Very exciting to see this take place...

JAMBOREE ON THE AIR IS ON THE HORIZON

PAUL/ANCHOR: This is probably the busiest time of year for the young hams in Radio Scouting and Bill Stearns NE4RD tells us why:

BILL: This week in Radio Scouting, we're one week away from the largest scouting event in the world.  Jamboree on the Air is the weekend of October 19th through the 21st.  All bands and all modes, look and listen for CQ JOTA. 

If you're an Amateur and have not got involved yet, contact your local club.  If your local club is not participating, and you still want to, contact your local Scout council and see what may already be planned in your area and how you can help. You can find your council using the Council locator on the scouting.org website.

If nothing is currently planned, or if current plans aren’t reaching your area, you can work with the council or a local unit (pack, troop, crew) to set up a JOTA station or arrange for visits to your ham shack. You can also participate just by making QSOs with the many JOTA stations that will be on the air. 

Currently registered stations around the world are approaching 3000, while stations in the U.S. are approaching 400.   Get your station locked in today and get registered through our shortcut at JOTA2018.k2bsa.net.  It's never too late to become involved.

For more information on JOTA or Radio Scouting please visit our website at k2bsa.net.

IN CALIFORNIA, A DAY OF DISCOVERY

PAUL/ANCHOR: Hams in California's Bay area are getting ready for a day of discovery, as we hear from Dave Parks WB8ODF.

DAVE: For members of the Sonoma County Radio Amateurs club in California, the eighth annual North Bay Science Discovery Day on October 27th may as well be called North Bay Radio Discovery Day. During the festival’s hours from 10 am to 4 pm local time at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, the club will be operating Special Event Station K6S, hoping for contacts on 10 meters, 20 meters and 40 meters. They’ll be operating the station to demonstrate radio to anyone and everyone who stops by. Club activities coordinator Darryl Paule (PAUL) said he is working on a special event QSL card as well for the event. Meanwhile, SCRA member Keith Payea (rhymes with “PayDay”) AG6CI will be talking about satellites, satellite signals and demonstrating how radio astronomy works using what he calls his “IBT” – for “itty bitty telescope” – a converted satellite TV dish. He is also hoping to show his portable SuperSID system – SID for Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance. The device uses software on a laptop to display a realtime spectrum of signals between Zero and 48 KHz, a range that includes some U.S. military signals around 25 KHz. Keith, who is a director of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers, explained to Newsline that the system monitors those signals around the clock and records ionospheric changes caused by the sun.
If there’s time, he said, he’d also like to operate special event station K6S too. So stop by if you are in the area – or be listening if you’re not.

CALLING QRZ ALL OVER EUROPE

PAUL/ANCHOR: The weekend of October 13th and 14th has been set aside for Europe's big international QSO Party and Ed Durrant DD5LP has the details.

ED: The next big international QSO party is being hosted by European Radio Amateurs Organization and the group is calling it journey of discovery. The activity is entirely on 60 meters, or 5 MHz, and it’s been organized to encourage use of this relatively band for hams in many countries. Get on 5 MHz on October 13th and 14th and operate on SSB, CW and digital modes – it’s that easy.
Participating hams are being asked to call “CQ EURAO Party” and you needn’t worry about a contact turning into a ragchew. That kind of exchange is being encouraged, with discussions on every topic ranging from the weather, ham shack equipment or even the city you’re operating from. Hams are also encouraged to exchange QSL cards but this is not a contest and even QSL cards are not necessary.
To help organizers gather statistics, logs can be submitted to the email address party at eurao dot org (party@eurao.org) in ADIF format with the filename as the ham’s callsign. Logs will not be submitted for prizes; however, if you submit a log on which at least 10 percent of your QSOs are confirmed, you will receive a certificate of participation.

OHIO HAMS JOIN HOSPITAL EMERGENCY DRILL

PAUL/ANCHOR: A hospital emergency drill in Ohio got some very real response from hams there recently, as we hear from Phil Thomas W8RMJ, courtesy of Amateur News Weekly.

PHIL: MARA, the Mound Amateur Radio Association located in Miamisburg Ohio assisted the Kettering Health Network in a simulated exercise on Thursday Sept. 20th. MARA provided communication support at Sycamore Hospital located in Miamisburg Ohio and at the Kettering’s new Franklin emergency urgent care facility located in Franklin Ohio. MARA club members assisting in this exercise included Frank KM8N, Mike W8BMR, Ken AC8AB, Bill KE8JDU and Dave N8DAT. The Mound Amateur Radio Association was formed in 1962 by employees of the Mound Atomic Energy Facility. MARA’s club meeting room and operational amateur shack is now located in the Mound Historic Park, also in Miamisburg Ohio.

WORLD OF DX
In this week's world of DX, Sigi, DL7DF, is operating until October 15th as SV8/DL7DF from Zakynthos Island. Listen for him on 80-10 meters using CW, SSB, and RTTY. His log will be uploaded within six months after the activation has concluded. Send QSLs via DL7DF, direct or by the DARC Bureau.

Listen for Bertrand, DF3FS, operating as TU5MH from the Ivory Coast between the 20th and the 29th of October. Bertrand will be on various HF bands using CW and SSB. QSL via DF3FS or LoTW. QSL requests are being accepted via ClubLog's OQRS and your own card is not needed. Please do not send QSLs via Bureau, use the OQRS system from ClubLog for confirmation via the Bureau.

KICKER: WHERE THE LIZARDS ARE QRV

PAUL/ANCHOR: Our final story is about some low-power transmitters making their way through the swamps of the UK. As Jeremy Boot G4NJH explains, they're operating mobile - atop a group of endangered lizards.

JEREMY: Satellites, weather balloons and other more traditional venues for transmitters have just gotten some unusual company: Twenty four sand lizards living in Eelmore Marsh in Farnborough in the UK. Just think of it as “Lizards on the Air” – but without any clever awards scheme.

These lizards are the UK’s rarest and, according to a report in the Warrington Guardian, two dozen are now wearing the lightweight radio trackers to help scientists at Marwell Wildlife Zoo follow them and study their behavior. The trackers are not even 5 percent of the creatures’ body weight. University of Southampton PhD student Rachel Gardner told the newspaper that the lizards blend in very well with the environment and, as such, would be lost from sight in the dense undergrowth. She said having them wear transmitters will make them easier to follow as they make their way through the habitat. The lizard is found throughout Europe and Asia but has become the focus of conservation efforts in England and Wales where its numbers have been diminishing.

The radio tags are expected to stay in place for a while – or at least until the animals shed their skins – at which point one can assume the lizar

FRIDAY EDITION: Pretty lousy out here, rain and fog. Nearfest starts today with the ether was better....Have you looked at amplifier pricing as of late? Ameritron solid state amps? You gotta be kidding me!......

Hard driving crew from the 3910 night bunch.....Joe-JEK second from left just visiting. I know the "OOG" and Craig but who are the two others?

Nearfest and Camo Man.....a regular....probably was never was even in the cub scouts..

and Brian- WO1VES dressed in his wolf outfit...tail and all....

Rocket carrying radio ham KG5TMV to ISS fails

A Soyuz rocket booster failed during the launch of a capsule carrying radio amateur Nick Hague KG5TMV and Alexey Ovchinin to the International Space Station

NPR report:

A Soyuz rocket booster failed during the launch of a capsule carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague [KG5TMV] and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin Thursday, forcing officials to abort their mission. The capsule made a "ballistic landing" and rescue teams recovered the pair, who are reportedly in "good condition," NASA says.
Search and recovery teams had been predeployed to areas beneath the possible flight path. Helicopters were able to reach Hague and Ovchinin fairly quickly and extract them from the capsule. They then started the process of flying back to the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Russia is reported to have suspended any further crewed flights, and an investigation into what went wrong had begun.

Read the full NPR story at
https://www.npr.org/2018/10/11/656473889/rocket-launch-failure-forces-astronaut-and-cosmonaut-to-make-ballistic-landing

Wireless electricity transmissions in Texas

KWTX reports scientists are studying wireless electricity transmission in Central Texas

An oddly shaped, but prominent, roadside construction project along Interstate 35-East just north of Carl’s Corner is actually a high-tech study into the feasibility of transmitting electricity from place to place without wires.

Driving toward Dallas on Interstate 35 East, just past Carl’s Corner on the right, there’s a unique tower. It has a large circular base, a smaller round structure jutting from the top, and on top of the pole sits a large, round, metal-looking ball.

ne of the broadcast engineers at KWTX noticed the thing while coming back from Dallas, took a picture and brought it to the newsroom so a reporter could figure out what it is.

Guesses ranged from some kind of electric-powered car charging port, or a radar for Dallas Fort Worth International Airport or Love Field, maybe something to do with the Internet and even a suggestion that it might be a prop on a new Star Trek movie set.

Turns out the first guess was closest.

It’s part of an experiment to study the feasibility of transmission of electric energy from source to user without using wires.

It’s being undertaken by a Waxahachie company named Viziv Technologies and it uses a technology they call a surface wave system.

Read the full story at
https://www.kwtx.com/content/news/Scientists-studying-wireless-electric-transmission-in-Central-Texas-494839331.html

Reported Russian Ham Band Intruders Continue to be Troublesome

The International Amateur Radio Union Monitoring Service (IARUMS) reports interference on 40 meters from various Russian sources. The Russian coastal over-the-horizon (OTH) radar “Sunflower” was very active on 40 meters and audible in Europe in the evenings, transmitting FM on pulse. The site is believed to be northeast of Vladivostok. IARUMS Region 1 Coordinator Wolf Hadel, DK2OM, said it was monitored in September.

In addition, a Russian ship was observed transmitted on 7,110 kHz on F1B with 50 baud and 200 Hz shift. The vessel was believed to be in the area around and east of Cyprus, on the air daily in September running F1B with 50 baud and 200 Hz shift. Another Russian ship was heard on September 18 transmitting AT3004D with 12 × 120 baud PSK2A on 7,179 kHz with a 2.6 kHz bandwidth in the area of Crete. And a Russian military system, believed to be near Moscow, was heard transmitting on 7,198 kHz in AT3004D test mode.

Elsewhere fishing crews often were monitored on 3,500, 3,535, 3,540, 3,560, 3,585, 3,590, 7,000 kHz, and 14,320 USB.

THURSDAY EDITION: What a mess down south, catastrophic for the Panhandle. Entire trains knocked over on the tracks with the wheels ripped right off. I hope ham radio can be of some assistance during the following days....I have been listening to the hurricane nets on 20 and 40 meters, interesting....Weather is sketchy for Friday here in coastal MA but looks ok in NH for the Nearfest hamfest...This is scary, soviet manned rocket on way to space station malfunctions...Navy hiding accident data....

Nearly Cheap Homebrew QRP Vertical by Rick- KB2NAT

Ideally, I wanted a portable antenna that was effective, didn’t have an extremely narrow bandwidth, was easy to carry, small, set up quickly and did well on DX. There must be a solution that doesn’t cost much…isn’t there?

First, I must say that I do have a mag loop and it works very well. It does, however, require some fine tuning and is subject to reacting to its surroundings which can be iffy in both home and travel. In addition, they are not cheap, and mine doesn’t remotely tune unless I want to add to the price and I don’t have the remotest idea of why I should spend more on it.

A large, albeit efficient, mag loop is not easy to travel with, either by foot or air. I could get a smaller (less efficient) one, but I’ve found that many surroundings in hotels and even beaches, often preclude their effective use. They are great for the right circumstances, but I have a penchant for not being in them.

A great idea is to simply use a couple of wires with a BNC connector with my KX3. Elecraft suggests a basic pair of 25’ wires and they are reasonably effective and my KX3 can tune them easily, as well as the other lengths I’ve tried. The KX3 can even tune the BNC connector…but, many times there aren’t appropriate structures to hang a wire on. Barring levitation, kites or balloons would just add stuff that I don’t need to add to my little go bag. I’ve used a bush, a low tree, or a signpost, as a support when nothing else was available, and the NVIS approach works well, but of course, not for DX. At least the price is very reasonable for 50’ of wire, especially at a garage sale where $2 can often buy a half roll of 500’ wire, but it’s inherently limited.

So I looked at a growing plethora of portable QRP antennas advertised out there and found that they were either costly ($90 for a just a coil?), really small (read inefficient), or too toy-like. End-fed antennas work well, but there is still the support issue. At the beach lifeguards apparently don’t want you to run a wire to the top of their beach stands.

I priced some verticals, and starting at the bottom, I looked at tripods for them. One was a slight variation of a camera tripod for $125…it was just like the one I bought at a garage sale for a few bucks and gave to our son. Another is small, very packable, but $90 was still a bit much. Then there’s a complete “deployment” kit that comes with two real counterpoise wires (with fittings) that will, for about four C- notes, have you bursting with deltoids, standing on a snow- clad mountain talking into a microphone with your head six inches from the radiator while QSO-ing with everyone who wants to communicate with a ham with deltoids on a mountain. I wondered about that one.

There’s also a tripod available with a telescoping pole for $160 and there’s a little one that comes apart in three little metal sticks with a small center section that has been threaded for an antenna for only about $80. There’s also an antenna that looks like it was designed by a spider and would cost two boat payments, but is directional. I would end up trying to put it together in a poison ivy patch, or a wind tunnel. Am I the only one who’s retired, makes car payments, yet wants to take his wife to dinner from time to time and keep things simple?

Some of the reasoning for buying showroom equipment I’ve heard is, “You bought an expensive transceiver, so you should spend lots of money for peripherals!” Part one precludes part two of that statement. It’s a HOBBY, not the definition of my masculinity…so what to do?

Fortunately, I hit many garage sales. As a result, I no longer need mobile mounts, coax, cables, work benches, vices (?), or pliers. I’ve obtained so much of that stuff on the cheap that hams run from me. “Oh no, he wants to give us more antenna cables!” My emails offering free cables are unanswered! Seriously!

I started to watch more videos of what other hams do…one guy has a machine shop, drill press, lathe, welding gear and seven racks of oscilloscopes, Hammarlunds and every Zenith Transoceanic ever made. I wanted to send him a picture of my Tivdio V-115 SW receiver ($19 on eBay). I have a condo. My tools are a hammer, some basic tools, a tall garbage can, a tiny desk vice, a soldering gun and a Dremel. I do have meters of various sorts that sit in a small drawer in my desk.

But I continued to persevere and several dozen videos later, I recognized that a lot of clever hams have had some great ideas and many of them are of the money-saving home-brew variety. And one day at a garage sale, I saw six pieces of one- foot aluminum tubing that screw together to form something that would look like a portable antenna that would cost $175 if it were made in California. How well, I thought, would that work for portable hamming? A dollar and six feet of aluminum tubing later, I was hooked on making my own portable, inexpensive, DX-eating, (semi) wide-band antenna.

Of course, that meant a few other auxiliary parts, like a coil, tripod, pole mount, and a cheap, long, skinny bag to carry it in, cable and solder. I was already half-way there. The garage yielded some one-inch PVC pipe— thin, easy-to-trip-on-and- hard-to-see (but useable) wire; and, I had enough antenna parts to make my own coil.

One ham used corrugated plastic hose which he cut into strips and glued to a support on which to wind a coil. Clever! I had some of the same stuff which I had previously used to cover sundry antenna cables coming into our house years back, so I cut it into four narrow seven-inch strips and glued them on the sides of a one-inch diameter PVC pipe to hold the wire. I drilled holes into two round PVC caps, installed the 24x3/8’s antenna hardware and bought a bolt to fit the odd six aluminum small pipes which would make up the radiating element. I used a wander lead with an alligator clip to connect to the coil to find points of resonance.

Part of a rotatable dipole bracket would work as a pole mount for the coil . Oh yes, the tripod—I had an old mic stand (garage sale; it came with six mike cables, two other mic stands and assorted audio cables: $10!). The basic tripod, extension and base were perfect for this purpose.

I mounted the bracket on the stand, the coil on the bracket, the aluminum pole on the coil and connected the antenna cable to the antenna analyzer (MFJ-I bought it direct). But the antenna was lopsided and crooked! The round caps were just impossible to evenly mount an antenna on, no matter how clever the hams were whom I watched do this in the videos. However, I took some readings, anyway. I found that I actually could tune down to 14 MHz, even if the coil and rods looked funny. Then I thought about my MFJ 1979T telescoping antenna (Christmas gift from the XYL). I replaced the hardware to fit the more conventional threads (24x3/8) and managed an SWR below 1.5:1 down to 6.5 MHz. I tried adding two one-foot extensions. However, it only dropped the lowest point of resonance down to 6.4 MHz. I guessed it would be easier to add more coil to reach 80 meters rather add than antenna length. Of course, if the antenna were straight it would look a bit more professional as well.

To increase inductance to get down to 80 meters, I made a coil that was 8” long and doubled the diameter to 2” with PVC pipe and some more slices of corrugated tubing as a wire guide. Instead of 12’ of wire, I used 36’. Instead of round caps, I found a pair of flat ones with screw-in inserts in which to mount the antenna receiving hardware. I used the same wander lead and with the coil and added 17’ telescoping antenna, I could now get down to 3.55 MHz with a usable SWR of 1.5:1 or better.

It measured well with the analyzer with the same three 25’ radials I had used before, so off I went with the antenna, tripod, KX3 and associated gear to our local gazebo in a small field to see how it all worked in practice. I had no problem matching the performance to the measurements. My little six- foot antenna with coil had given way to something much larger, but still practical. The MFJ 1979T and all else packed up well with the mic stand being the longest piece of about 27”. It all worked surprisingly effectively, even if I wasn’t on a mountain top with a tight t-shirt over my big deltoids. But there are, however, some rather important afterthoughts.

The first was that it wasn’t quite as cheap as originally planed. The hardware was already on hand, because I was cannibalizing previously used materials, but if I were starting from scratch, the cost would have risen easily by $40-50. And if I hadn’t had the $60 telescoping antenna, I would have had to buy one or use a lot of coat hander wire—very uncool. Another of those afterthoughts was to raise the antenna to its maximum height once it was on the tripod. It gives some vertical help to the radials and gives two less feet of wire for people (me) to trip over. This (and an 6 knot breeze) brought forth another afterthought: that was to carry three or four ground stakes (they don’t have to be large) and cords with adjusters. The 17’ antenna, fully extended, develops a surprising amount of wind loading. My cheap bag wore a hole in one end, dumping everything out. Time for a new bag… either a garage sale acquisition (over some time) or some material and some sewing machine time (the XYL volunteered here), so I don’t yet have a bag that will work for toting the coil, antenna, and my converted mic stand. I can’t see this being a big cost. I mention it because finding a weakness in the stitching or a hole in cheap material can leave parts invisibly in the woods forever.

So How does it compare to a good mag loop? It’s cheaper, easier to transport, but is not quite as good in performance. The mag loop also demands some freedom from metal objects which could leave you stranded. The vertical is noisier, but more consistent in its performance and more useful in more places. It also requires a bit more time to put up, but not much more. The mag loop covers 60-6 meters; the vertical covers down to 80 meters and the KX3 ATU would tune it down to 160 meters, which would also see a big drop in efficiency. Both antennas lose efficiency as the frequency drops, of course. It wasn’t as cheap as I’d hoped, if one considers the cost of buying what I had on hand (the MFJ telescoping antenna, the hardware, etc.) However, it is enjoyable to just spend an afternoon with something you built yourself—even if it’s a wire thrown over a branch—helping to send those QRP watt(s) into the ether. And looking at the prices of many of the antennas out there, I guess I didn’t spend that much after all.

GUTTER CLIPS

Many radio amateurs face restrictions when they want to install HF antennas at home.

In the US, HOA restrictions can make getting on the HF bands especially challenging.

Often the best solution is a wire antenna installed around the rain gutter of a house.

SOTABEAMS now stocks some handy hooks that can be used to clip a wire round guttering.

https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/gutter-clips-for-antenna-wires-pack-of-36-clips/

Amateur Radio Assets Active as Category 4 Hurricane Michael Makes Landfall

An array of Amateur Radio public service assets is active as Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach on the Florida Panhandle today, boasting devastating 155 MPH winds. The storm is believed to be the first Category 4 or stronger hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle, and the National Hurricane Center has been warning of life-threatening storm surge as well as hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall.
  • The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) resumed operations Wednesday morning and will remain active until further notice on 14.325.00 MHz and 7.268.00 MHz. 
  • WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio at the National Hurricane Center, is active to receive observed weather information and data via Amateur Radio to aid forecasters. 
  • The VoIP Hurricane Net activated this morning to support communication with the National Hurricane Center.
  • The Southern Territory Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) will remain active until 9 PM ET on Wednesday and will reactivate on Thursday, if necessary. The net will handle emergency, priority, and health-and-welfare traffic from impacted areas, provide ground-truth information from Amateur Radio stations and other sources in the impacted areas for forwarding to Salvation Army leadership. SATERN has been requested to provide Amateur Radio operators for Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, and Tampa, as well as two to three local units in Georgia, and Divisional Headquarters in Atlanta. 
  • The ARRL North Florida and West Central Florida sections are assisting SATERN with additional operators in Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, and Tampa. North Florida Section ARES is at Level 1 (full) activation. 
  • The ARRL Emergency Response Team has been coordinating with Field Organization leadership in ARRL Sections that may be affected by the storm, as well as with WX4NHC, the HWN, VoIP Hurricane Net, Department of Homeland Security SHARES, and US Army MARS. 

In a Category 4 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center predicts “catastrophic damage” will occur, with severe damage to “well-built framed homes” with “loss of most of the roof structure and/or some exterior walls.” In addition, “Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas.” Power outages, possibly lengthy, are likely, and most of the area could remain “uninhabitable for weeks or months.”

The National Hurricane Center predicts that Michael will take a turn toward the northeast this afternoon or tonight, with motion toward the northeast at a faster forward speed on Thursday through Friday night. On the forecast track, the core of Michael is expected now to move northeastward across the southeastern US tonight and Thursday, and then move off the mid-Atlantic coast away from the US on Friday. 

International Space Station Crew Member Fires Up NA1SS to Seek Random Contacts

“Hello, America. This is the International Space Station. Who’s out there?”

And with that “CQ” of sorts on 145.800 MHz, NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor, KG5TMT, MD, spent some time at the helm of NA1SS on October 6 making casual, random contacts — something that’s fairly rare these days. The ISS was on a pass that took the spacecraft up along the east coast of the US at the time. In response to a question, Auñón-Chancellor, who has been on station since June, told one caller that she’s been floating the entire time she’s been in space.

“We float every day. Float to work, float back to sleep. It is awesome,” she said.

Scott Chapman, K4KDR, of Montpelier, Virginia, edited a clip of downlink chatter by the 42-year-old flight surgeon and flight engineer.

“During most passes of the ISS where I'm working with the packet digipeater on 145.825, I also monitor 145.800 just in case there is any activity on that frequency,” Chapman said in a post to AMSAT-BB. “For the first time in my personal experience, today one of the astronauts was randomly calling to see if anybody was listening. Of course I tried to reply on 145.800 simplex, but there are a number of possible uplinks, and none of them were programmed into my radio. They are now! It was a real thrill and, like so much of this hobby, a learning opportunity.”

Auñón-Chancellor is aboard the ISS as part of the Expedition 56/57 crew. She’ll return to Earth in December. 

The Amateur Radio FM voice frequencies for stations in ITU Regions 2 and 3 are 145.800 MHz down and 144.490 MHz up. For stations in Region 1, the uplink frequency is 145.200 MHz.    

 

WEDNESDAY EDITION: The Red Sox game was a nail biter in the ninth inning but they won. Screw the Yankees and their half wit fans....

FCC propose revised interference protection for Class A AM stations

New FCC proposals would take into account the rising noise levels in the AM broadcast band (535-1605 kHz) caused by power lines, LED and CFL lights, computers, etc

The FCC asks:

Is there common agreement that protection of the 0.1 mV/m contour is excessive because a 0.1 mV/m signal cannot be heard under current noise conditions or are there studies to the contrary? 

Is the appropriate level of protection to the 0.5 mV/m groundwave contour?

The FCC seek comment on revised proposals for amending protections to Class A AM stations, which include alternative protection standards for critical hours and nighttime hours. 

The following proposals all provide Class A stations with less protection than they currently enjoy; in the case of the critical hours proposals, Alternative 1 provides Class A stations with less protection than does Alternative 2, and in the case of the nighttime protection proposals, Alternative 2 in some cases provides Class A stations with less protection than does Alternative 1:

Daytime hours proposal:
• During daytime hours, Class A AM stations are protected to their 0.5 mV/m daytime groundwave contour, from both co-channel and first-adjacent channel stations;

Critical hours proposals:
• Alternative 1:  During critical hours, Class A AM stations are afforded no protection from other AM stations, as proposed in the AMR NPRM, or
• Alternative 2:  During critical hours, Class A AM stations are protected to their 0.5 mV/m groundwave contour;

Nighttime hours proposals:
• Alternative 1:  During nighttime hours, there may be no overlap between a Class A AM station’s 0.5 mV/m nighttime groundwave contour and any interfering AM station’s 0.025 mV/m 10 percent skywave contour (calculated using the single station method); or
• Alternative 2:  During nighttime hours, Class A AM stations are protected from other AM stations in the same manner as Class B AM stations are protected, that is, interference may not be increased above the greater of the 0.5 mV/m nighttime groundwave contour or the 50 percent exclusion RSS NIF level (calculated using the multiple station method).

Download the FCC proposal from
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-proposes-revised-interference-protection-class-am-stations

Calling all ham radio operators!

Hawai'i Public Radio reports the recent close calls with hurricanes and tropical storms have renewed the focus on vulnerabilities of our emergency response system

The spotlight will be on ham operators and new training that is available this month. We sat down with Clem Jung KH7HO who is trying to spread the word about an exercise for amateur operators that takes place this Saturday.

Listen to the broadcast at
http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/calling-all-ham-radio-operators

Emergency Amateur Radio Club
http://www.earchi.org/

TUESDAY EDITION: Well that was quite the show of pitching and offense by the Red Sox last night...wonder what will happen next game????....Nearfest hamfest this Friday in NH, weather looks good....

NEAR-Fest XXIII to Host Youth Science and Technology Expo

The New England Amateur Radio Festival (NEAR-Fest) and the Deerfield Fair Association will present a science and technology exposition for young people at the Deerfield Fairgrounds, in Deerfield, New Hampshire, Friday, October 12, and Saturday, October 13, as part of NEAR-Fest XXIII.

Each spring and fall, the New England Tech Trek (NET2) provides middle- and high-school students with an informal, hands-on introduction to real-life applications and the fun of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The display will feature Amateur Radio and other technology, including a high-altitude balloon with radio telemetry, robotics, Raspberry Pi projects, radio direction finding, and software-defined radios. The Nashua (NH) Area Radio Society (NARS) will offer five “Get on the Air” stations that attendees can use.

Admission to the NET2 expo is free.

Investigation into International Space Station Leak Continues

NASA has issued a statement regarding a leak affecting the International Space Station (ISS). On August 29, a mysterious 2-millimeter hole was discovered on a Soyuz capsule docked to the ISS, resulting in a pressure leak.

The Soyuz capsule last carried to the ISS cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, and astronauts Serena Auñón-Chancellor, KG5TMT, and Alexander Gerst, KF5ONO. It is scheduled to return them to Earth in December.

The hole, which appeared to have been drilled, was repaired by the crew. Roscosmos said this week that the hole was not drilled by accident, opening the possibility of sabotage. Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin earlier ruled out a manufacturing defect.

“[This] indicates that this is an isolated issue which does not categorically affect future production,” the NASA statement said. “This conclusion does not necessarily mean the hole was created intentionally or with mal-intent.”

Roscosmos has claimed the hole may have been drilled by a technician on the ground.

NASA and Roscosmos continue to investigate the incident to determine the cause, and a November spacewalk is planned in order to gather more information.

On October 11, US Astronaut Nick Hague, KG5TMV, and Russian Cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin will head to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is scheduled to attend the launch and plans to meet with Rogozin at that time.

Hurricane Michael: Hurricane Watch Net

ARRL report the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) has announced tentative plans to activate on October 9 at 2100 UTC on both 14.325 and 7.268 MHz as now-Hurricane Michael is forecast to become a Category 1 hurricane 

It is expected to make landfall somewhere on the Florida Panhandle on the evening of October 10 as a strong Category 2 or possibly a major Category 3 hurricane.

“However, don’t focus on the primary dotted line of the forecast track, as Mother Nature has a way of changing her mind as to where a storm can go,” HWN Manager Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, cautioned.

Now boasting sustained winds of 75 MPH, the storm is moving to the north at 7 MPH. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said storm surge and hurricane watches are now in effect for portions of the northeastern Gulf Coast area. Some areas along the Florida Gulf Coast are especially vulnerable to storm surge, regardless of the storm’s exact track or intensity.

Read the full ARRL story at
http://www.arrl.org/news/hurricane-watch-net-announces-plans-as-hurricane-michael-approaches-gulf-coast

3rd Limerick Scout Troop on-the-air for 61st Jamboree-On-The-Air

With less than 2 weeks to go, the excitement is building in the 3rd Limerick Scout Group which will participate in the largest Scouting event in the world, the 61st Jamboree On The Air.

Last year saw almost 1.6 million Scout members at 28,178 locations in 152 countries coming together for the event.

Preparations for operation from IO52NO, in which the Curraghchase Scout Centre in County Limerick, Ireland is located, are at an advanced stage for the group who will be camping in this woodland location.
The Expeditionary Radio Team from the Kerry Amateur Radio Group will once again be assisting the Scout Group. For some of the Scouting members it will be their first practical introduction to the world of radio communications while others will have had some exposure from various badge work that they have undertaken as well as from JOTA in 2017.

A ”hands on” approach is taken with the Scouts who will be involved in all aspects of the event from logistics through to execution. Training in the radio communication aspect of the weekend is ongoing for all members with much interest and enthusiasm being shown by the 70 strong group of youth members and leaders alike.

The Scout group will be very busy setting up and operating the main radio communications station for Jamboree-On-The-Air, building and erecting a mast of their own design capable of raising a HF dipole on Saturday as well as setting up a 2 metre station at an outdoor location given by a grid reference somewhere on the 200 acre site. A surprise night time outdoor exercise is also planned to add to the excitement after the youth members requested even more outdoor based activities for this year in spite of the wet weather experienced in the event in 2017.

Much interest has been shown this year in communicating with Scout members in their native languages. Our youth members reported much enjoyment chatting to fellow Scouts in German and Spanish last year on HF radio and are very much looking forward to similar QSO’s this year.

The weekend will challenge their planning, logistic, emergency, map reading, pioneering, camping and catering skills alongside their radio skills. The youth members will plan and undertake most aspects of the entire weekend themselves with the leaders acting in a guiding and mentoring capacity. The efforts of their work will contribute to their ongoing badge work with new skills being learned and put into practice as well as having a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. The team work and commitment displayed by this Scout group has to be seen to be believed.

The station is planned to be operational from Friday 19 th October in the evening through to Sunday 21 st October mid-day and the group are registered on the JOTA website as participating. The callsign EI1K will be used for the Jamboree.

The 3rd Limerick Scout Group are looking forward to meeting both fellow Scouts and amateur radio operators from around the world.

Further information on Jamboree On The Air can be found at https://www.jotajoti.info

Playing psk with the Icom 7600...a fun radio for sure...

FUNcube operations update...if you watch spacejunk

The FUNcube team have announced that AO-73 is now in full time amateur mode

FUNcube-1

As you will know, AO73/FUNcube-1 has been in full sunlight for over one month and has been transmitting continuously high power telemetry for most of that time. This has now been changed to full time amateur mode so the transponder is once again available. With the more stable on board temperatures being experienced, this means that the transponder frequencies are also now more stable.

We expect to leave it in this mode for some weeks so that the team can determine whether or not the currents flowing from the solar panels are having any noticeable effect on the spin period.

FUNcube-2

The FUNcube-2 transponder on UKube-1 continues to be in full time transponder mode. There are occasional breaks in service for a few seconds when the OBC reboots and the other onboard transmitter sends its CW beacon.

FUNcube-3 on Nayif-1

EO88/Nayif-1 continues to perform nominally with high power telemetry when in sunlight and amateur mode when in eclipse.

With their slightly different orbital characteristics it is useful that AO73 is now the early bird, EO88 comes over in the mid morning and UKube provides coverage in the afternoon.

We have been suffering from some network issues in relation to uploading the telemetry from the Dashboards to the Data Warehouse over the past couple of weeks. Apologies for this, but hopefully everything is now stable again. ie fingers are still crossed. Thank you for all the telemetry that you upload.

Like many other teams, we are presently waiting for the next Space-X launch from Vandenberg which is expected to be carrying a number of new amateur payloads, These will provide additional transponder and STEM capabilities for the amateur satellite service. Exciting times ahead.

73 Graham G3VZV

WEEKEND EDITION: Well the Red Sox vs Yankees is worth the price of admission, two very good clubs....one with a shitty bullpen.....November digital issue of QST is available to us who belong, hey I like the advertising section....

NEAR-Fest XXIII to Host Youth Science and Technology Expo

The New England Amateur Radio Festival (NEAR-Fest) and the Deerfield Fair Association will present a science and technology exposition for young people at the Deerfield Fairgrounds, in Deerfield, New Hampshire, Friday, October 12, and Saturday, October 13, as part of NEAR-Fest XXIII.

Each spring and fall, the New England Tech Trek (NET2) provides middle- and high-school students with an informal, hands-on introduction to real-life applications and the fun of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The display will feature Amateur Radio and other technology, including a high-altitude balloon with radio telemetry, robotics, Raspberry Pi projects, radio direction finding, and software-defined radios. The Nashua (NH) Amateur Radio Society (NARS) will offer five “Get on the Air” stations that attendees can use.

Admission to the NET2 expo is free.

Foundations of Amateur Radio #174

Random bits of wire ...

One topic that is longer than all other topics combined is that of antennas. Designing, planning, sourcing, building, tuning, using, you name it, all of this is regular fare in the day of a radio amateur. I've discussed the topic here regularly and no doubt I'll revisit that when the mood or necessity takes me.

One topic that is rarely discussed is that of failure.

About six months ago I moved house. I've been rebuilding my shack, doing all manner of fancy shuffling of gear and yesterday I finally got to the point of getting some HF activity happening. During that process I went through boxes and boxes of stuff, with coax, connectors, wire, nuts, bolts, heat shrink and all the other necessities of being a member of an experimental hobby like ours.

One box contained wire. You know the adage, only two types of wire required in our hobby, cheap wire or free wire with a preference for free. This box was stuffed with wire. Bits with connectors, bits wound around spools, bits in zip-loc bags with labels, bits of random length - lots of bits of random length.

There was even an abortive attempt at labelling dipoles for various bands on the outside of a couple of zip-loc bags, but no idea if the bit of wire in the bag was actually ever tested and resonant on whatever band was on the label, so who knows, they might have just been cut long waiting for another day and another set of experiments and measurements.

I needed around 50 meters of hook-up wire for my HF antenna experiment and it occurred to me when I was hunting through my box that I couldn't look at a spool and tell you how much wire there was. I did a dodgy measurement of one bit, put it on the kitchen scales and determined that another spool was heavier, so it was likely longer, but without bringing in my calculator, doing extra measurements and doing some head scratching there was no way that I was going to get to the point of knowing how much actual wire was on that spool.

In the end I made do with the dodgy piece, soldered some joins, that's a whole other adventure, involving a gas-powered soldering iron and a flame, the flame won, as well as several other breaks and fixes.

While I was in the process of putting up my new antenna experiment it occurred to me that part of the process of experimentation, even of shack maintenance should be the documentation stage.

I have bits of terminated coax, some of it 20 meters long, some longer, some shorter. How much longer, and how much shorter you ask? No idea. But wouldn't it be great if I could put my hands on a piece of kit that I needed that was the length that I expected and not 10 meters over length, or 1 meter short.

In my audio kit, I have started labelling patch leads with their functions, using key-ring tags. I don't expect that to work for plain wire, but it should be a good solution for coax. I could use cable tie labels, but past experience with those leaves the text fading on the label. I've experimented with a printed label with clear heat shrink, but for reasons best known to chemists, the clear heat shrink becomes yellow in short order leaving the label unreadable.

I've heard of people using electrical tape with colour coding, perhaps one ring for every 5 meters of length, but they seem to come undone in the dust when you go camping.

One thing I do know is that this is a recurring problem for me. This is the first time I've actually stopped to talk about it and perhaps it means that I'll get a little closer to a solution.

I'd love to hear what you do to deal with this and how you keep track of the countless different lengths of wire, coax and rope that's lying around your shack.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

To listen to the podcast, visit the website: http://podcasts.itmaze.com.au/foundations/ and scroll to the bottom for the latest episode.

New ham radio satellite forum aims to help newcomers

AMSAT-DL President Peter Gülzow DB2OS reports on a new amateur radio satellite forum that aims to help newcomers become active on the satellites

On the AMSAT Bulletin board (AMSAT-BB) he writes:

We have set up a new online forum at https://forum.amsat-dl.org/

Especially with the upcoming launch of P4-A/Es'hail-2 we want to offer a forum for extensive discussions.

Essentially this is a forum, where everyone can report on experiences and knowledge from operating satellites and thereby help other newly interested radio amateurs to become active and a member of our satellite community.

Of course all topics around amateur radio satellites and OSCAR's should be discussed there, appropriate categories and forums were created. 
If necessary this can be extended at any time and on request.

We would be pleased if the new forum is well received and you register there with your callsign (if available) as your name.

Of course you can also look around as a "guest".

Experienced users can also check in the settings for new entries and have them delivered by eMail if you wish so.

In this sense, have fun

Peter, DB2OS 1st Chairman
Chris, DL7AG, Webmaster

Coronal canyon faces Earth

A large canyon-shaped hole is bisecting the sun's atmosphere, spewing a stream of solar wind toward Earth.

NOAA forecasters say there is a 65% chance of minor G1-class geomagnetic storms when the gaseous material arrives on Oct. 7th or 8th.

Visit Spaceweather.com for more information and updates

Investigation into International Space Station Leak Continues

NASA has issued a statement regarding a leak affecting the International Space Station (ISS). On August 29, a mysterious 2-millimeter hole was discovered on a Soyuz capsule docked to the ISS, resulting in a pressure leak.

The Soyuz capsule last carried to the ISS cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, and astronauts Serena Auñón-Chancellor, KG5TMT, and Alexander Gerst, KF5ONO. It is scheduled to return them to Earth in December.

The hole, which appeared to have been drilled, was repaired by the crew. Roscosmos said this week that the hole was not drilled by accident, opening the possibility of sabotage. Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin earlier ruled out a manufacturing defect.

“[This] indicates that this is an isolated issue which does not categorically affect future production,” the NASA statement said. “This conclusion does not necessarily mean the hole was created intentionally or with mal-intent.”

Roscosmos has claimed the hole may have been drilled by a technician on the ground.

NASA and Roscosmos continue to investigate the incident to determine the cause, and a November spacewalk is planned in order to gather more information.

On October 11, US Astronaut Nick Hague, KG5TMV, and Russian Cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin will head to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is scheduled to attend the launch and plans to meet with Rogozin at that time.

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2136- last weeks news rehash...

HAMS RESPOND TO DEVASTATION IN INDONESIA

JIM/ANCHOR: In our top story this week, amateurs have once again used their radios to help in a catastrophe - in this case, the devastated Indonesian landscape. Graham Kemp VK4BB has those details.

GRAHAM: A series of earthquakes and a tsunami have left more than 800 people dead and countless more injured in the Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia where amateur radio operators were activated immediately to assist with disaster communications.
A report from Dani Halim YB2TJV, the IARU’s new Region 3 Disaster Communication Coordinator said that the 7.7 magnitude quake on September 28th cut off utilities including power and communications. Emergency operations were established about 700 km, or 434 miles, from the quake’s epicenter at the Luwuk Disaster Management Agency. Indonesia’s national radio society, ORARI, began an emergency net on 7.110 MHz to gather details about landslides and other dangerous conditions. ORARI has also activated a satellite for backup use, much the same as it did during the earthquake that struck in August in Lombok.
A second net was set up on 7.065 MHz because of excessive QRM on the first frequency. Communications were established early on with two mobile stations in Palu, Sutrisno YB8NT and Ronny YB8PR.
Atenk YD8MII and Budi were also operating on the emergency net to gather details about landslides.
The earthquake was followed by a tsunami and some videos posted on social media showed waves as high as 6 metres, or nearly 20 feet, striking one beach where festival preparation

NEW ORGANIZATION TAKES OVER FOR 62ND ANNUAL PA QSO PARTY

JIM/ANCHOR: Participants in the Pennsylvania Q-S-O Party will hit the ham bands the weekend of Oct. 13 and 14. But the future of the PA Party was in doubt after its long-time sponsoring organization decided to give it up. Amateur Radio Newsline's Mark (Abram-o-vich) Abramowicz, NT3V, has the story.

MARK: For more than 50 years, the Nittany Amateur Radio Club had sponsored the Pennsylvania Q-S-O Party - which has become one of the most popular state parties just behind the California QSO Party.
For the last 13 years, the intrepid Michael Koslo, N3LI, was chairman of the event.
But word emerged at the beginning of the year that the Nittany group and Koslo were giving it up and looking for someone to take over.
Anthony Good, K3NG, is vice president of a group of long-time PA Party participants who didn't want to see the event disappear.
"We basically formed a group called the Pennsylvania QSO Party Association," Good says. "About six of us who are enthusiasts that have been participating for years in the party and basically offered up our group to take over management of it and the Nittany Amateur Radio Club graciously awarded us management of the party. … The party's been going on for over 60 years now and we certainly didn't want to see it die."
Good says the group's decision has been well received. 
As to this year's multi-op bonus station, Good says it was an easy choice...
"The bonus station for this year is going to be N3LI operating from Centre County honoring Mike and all the work that he's done over the years," Good says. 
And, of course, Good says the PA Party isn't changing one important element..
"We all recognize we don't want to change the character of the party," Good says. "I mean we still want to keep it the same type of party. We call it the Friendly QSO Party.”
"It seems to appeal to casual operators and the hard-core contest operators. We want to keep that same vibe going forward."
Good says the PA QSO Party Association isn't making any substantive changes to this year's rules, but he projects there will be some advances for next year's event...
"We certainly want to keep that momentum going. I think we want to support the tradition of the Pennsylvania QSO Party but also try some new things," Good says. "Undoubtedly, FT8 right now is all the rage in amateur radio. I think right now where FT8 stands - at least the mainstream mode doesn't support the exchange that we have in the PA QSO Party serial number.
"We'll probably support that next year. There's also been talk of eliminating the serial number. So, little things like that. I expect we'll see an influx of FT8 next year and see it grow." 
Good says the PA QSO Party participation has been seeing a steady rise in the number of entries. He says the new association is looking for input from participants, too...
"We're always looking to create new awards," Good says. "We've always had pride in both our in-state awards and our out-of-state awards. We always want out-of-state participation and I'd like to see us grow out-of-state participation even more than what it is today."
To learn more about the PA Party go to paqso.org.

ON AMERICAN TV ‘LAST MAN’ IS FIRST

JIM/ANCHOR: Hams in the U.S. couldn’t be happier to have their favorite TV ham Mike Baxter KA0XTT back on the air. Now they have another reason to celebrate, as we hear from Kevin Trotman N5PRE.

KEVIN: If you are a fan of American TV, you probably already know that the situation comedy “Last Man Standing” is now "Proud Man Standing Tall” in the ratings. The show features Tim Allen KK60TD as ham radio operator Mike Baxter KA0XTT and viewers report that his signal is 10 over: Variety newspaper writes that the show made its debut on the Fox Network on Friday, September 28th with an average 1.8 rating for viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, beating its season on ABC, the network that originally carried the show before cancelling it. Variety also reports that “Last Man Standing” was the network’s top-rated show for that night – and the most-watched comedy on Fox in nearly seven years. The show is popular in the amateur radio community thanks to its protagonist being a ham himself – and it so inspired actor Tim Allen that he decided to make things real by getting his ticket in 2014. For many hams, however, the show begins well before the TV is on: the crew operates amateur radio station KA6LMS during meal breaks on production days. The set itself features QSL cards from fans – maybe even some of you listening now.

INDIAN AMATEURS HAVE BIG PLANS FOR CUBESAT

JIM/ANCHOR: Eight members of a Cubesat development team in India are preparing for their project's big launch as Jim Meachen ZL2BHF tells us.

JIM MEACHEN: November promises to be a big month for the eight members of the development team in Hyderabad, India who built an ExseedSat CubeSat. The 10-centimeter satellite, which carries an APRS digipeater and an amateur radio FM transponder for voice communication, is to be sent into space by the U.S.-based SpaceX company. The satellite is expected to be on a polar orbit, giving it two daily passes over India. Its beacon will be transmitting on 145.900 MHz FM using a TV tuner and a USB dongle.

Gurudatta Panda VU3GDP, one of the development team members, gave the details recently to The Hindu newspaper, noting that the satellite will be especially useful for radio amateurs during natural calamities when communications get disrupted.

An eight-member team worked on the design and construction at Exseed Space Private Limited, which was cofounded by communications engineer Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE. Exseed Space notes on its website that it is in the process of setting up the first contract satellite building facility in India with a focus on nanosats, cubesats and microsats.

Gurudatta is especially aware of the need for communications during weather events and other emergencies. He assisted with radio operations in 2013 when a cyclone hit the Ganjam district in India.

MONTENEGRO'S SUPER STATION GETS BACK IN THE GAME

JIM/ANCHOR: Even before the results were in for the CQ World Wide RTTY contest held the weekend of September 29th to 30th, the 403A Super Station of Ranko Boca in Montenegro felt like a winner. Jason Daniels VK2LAW tells us why.

JASON: A massive fire on the Lustica peninsula in southwestern Montenegro in July of last year kept the 403A super station out of the running in the 2017 CQ World Wide RTTY contest. Disaster struck the station after two successful previous years in which operators placed second and third. This year however the station made a glorious comeback as operators entered their first major contest from the station since that fire. In the shack for the 48-hour marathon weekend were youngsters who are part of the IARU’s YOTA Youth Contest Program, an initiative begun by Ranko Boca, owner of the 403A super station.
Dan Quigley N7HQ, technical rep for 4O3A in America, told Newsline in an email that the weekend QSOs were accomplished under marginal band conditions. The youngsters who gave it their all were Florian PB8DX from the Netherlands, Matteo IU2GGL from Italy and two young hams from Serbia: Janko YU3EEA and Ljubomir YU5EEA. They were assisted by a crew of seasoned operators: Ranko Boca along with Milan YU1ZZ, Lazo YU1JW, Isidora 402ISD and Marko 409TTT.
The station is considered one of Europe’s top contesters - and win or lose, the station has clearly got its momentum back.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I’m Jason Daniels VK2LAW.

TWO HAMS HONORED WITH RAC'S AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD

JIM/ANCHOR: Years of hard work planning an important Canadian special event station has won two hams special recognition, as we hear from Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

JEREMY: Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) has honoured two hams for their work on the VE100VIMY special event project in 2017, which featured the participation of amateurs throughout Canada and a special event station TM100VIMY at Vimy Ridge in France.
 
According to the RAC website, the special event required six years of planning and the award recipients Don Studney, VE7DS and Keith Witney, VE7KW were key to its success. Don was the team leader and Keith was deputy team leader and chief engineer of the Vimy Commemorative Station Society.
 
The pair were presented with the RAC Amateur of the Year Award on Sept. 11th during the monthly meeting of the Orca DX and Contest Club in British Columbia. According to the RAC website: [quote] “Together, Don and Keith made the project happen, a project that involved more than 40,000 Amateurs around the world!” [endquote]
 
The duo took special care in preparing the VE100VIMY station at Vimy itself in April of 2017. They helped create a shack where a number of operators would work, including two from France: Didier Cadot, F6BCW and Serge Mazza, F6IPT.
 
The QSOs had actually begun earlier: On January 1st, operation of VE100VIMY/VE1 and VE100VIMY/VY2 had already been completed. By the end of March, all 13 Canadian call areas had experienced a one-week activation in the event, completing more than 38,000 QSOs with six continents and more than 125 countries.

RADIO SCOUTS MOVE FORWARD INTO JOTA WEEKEND

JIM/ANCHOR: Radio Scouts never rest and with Jamboree on the Air coming, there's still work to be done, as Bill Stearns NE4RD tells us.

BILL: This week in Radio Scouting, we're three weeks away from Jamboree on the Air and registrations are coming in strong!  We have one more reservation for the K2BSA callsign for JOTA weekend and quite a few announcements of JOTA activity on our Scout Camps on the Air site for the weekend of October 19th through the 21st.

Philip Housel, KC7SVI, will be activating K2BSA/7 from VFW Post 4992 in Bremerton, WA.  Troop 1539 will be operating both JOTA and JOTI. Special Thanks to the Kitsap County Amateur Radio Club for the use of radio equipment and club members who will be helping make this event a success.
Our SCOTA.us stations for JOTA are as follows:
KD8AVN will be active from The House Reservation in Medina, OH.  Troop 501 anticipates operating 2-3 transmitters focusing on HF and holding Radio Merit Badge sessions. Troop 501 is a troop of around 60 boys from NE Ohio, they have 4 licensed youth and 2 licensed assistant scoutmasters, that will be joined by the Medina 2 Meter club and local Webelos for this event.
W1M will be active from Moses Scout Reservation in Russell, MA.  They will be using a Yaesu FT 897 and a wire dipole for 40 meters for their activation.  A special QSL card will be available for this event with a SASE.
KN4MDJ will be active from Camp La-No-Che in Paisly, FL.  Cubscout Halloween 2018 (Cuboree) will be in full effect for the JOTA weekend.  They expect 600-1000 Cub Scouts to attend and will try to get most on-the-air. At least 3 Ham groups will be setting up covering ALL of the HAM bands, from 160 to 13cm and Echolink. Their goal is to have the most scouts for JOTA in one location for the state.  
K2SRF will be active from Babcock Hovey in Ovid, NY.  The Challenge trophy camporee has over 1800 scouts registered for over 200 stations. Hams will be demonstrating what they love the best about ham radio. all bands all modes.

KICKER: DXPEDITIONING WITH MOM AND DAD

JIM/ANCHOR: Finally, we close this week by introducing you to the Bergmann family of Germany. As we hear from Ed Durrant DD5LP, their daughter - a new ham - had some plans this year for their family vacation.

ED: When most youngsters ask their parents for a dream-come-true vacation, more often than not it’s to Disney World or some other attraction with amusements, fun rides and lots of junk food. Eleven year old Laura Bergmann DL2JJ of Dreieich Germany had a different idea. Upon passing her licencing exam, she informed her father and mother she wanted to go to the St. Marcouf Islands. Her dream was a DXpedition with Emil DL8JJ, her father and Verjy DL9JJ  her mother. Packing up 500 kilograms, or eleven hundred pounds of equipment that included a Honda generator and fuel, two antennas and their rigs, the family loaded up their small car and headed to the islands, off the coast of Normandy, France. They even slept two nights in the vehicle until they arrived. The Bergmanns spent about 44 hours on the island, completing 1,340 QSOs, 54 of them with DXCCs. They operated on 80 meters through 17 meters pretty much around the clock. Whatever time they spent in their sleeping bags was minimal, and they spent it dreaming of the next contacts they’d make on SSB, CW or FT-8. Always the proud father, Emil told Newsline that he and his wife had activated the island together in 2015 while Laura was in school but he said “Now was the real moment.” He said “this was a real Dxpedition, not just a vacation.”

It was indeed a dream-come-true and Laura Bergmann can now say that the family that goes rock-climbing together and travels together also DXpeditions together.

FRIDAY EDITION: Southern New England College is now recruiting and handing out scholarships for the best computer video gamers. Yep, the best players of computer games are going to play a new varsity sport growing on campuses all over the country. Who would have guessed a nerd could get a college letter and jacket for playing a computer game? The times are a changing....Someone popped a bunch of balloons in a Boston area college and the building was evacuated and went into lock down, little snowflakes Skippy and Violet were traumatized thinking they were going to die..give me a break. One of my old roommates used to have nightmares and fall out of bed looking for his m16 after returning from Vietnam...he had good reason to be traumatized but these coddled shits afraid of everything thanks to the liberal media....

Remembering the Launch of Sputnik 1 — Earth’s First Artificial Satellite

October 4 marks the 61st anniversary of the launch by the Soviet Union of Sputnik 1, Earth’s first artificial satellite. The Soviets heralded the launch as a national triumph, and the space race between the USSR and the US began.

Sputnik 1 was a 58-centimeter diameter, polished aluminum sphere sprouting four antennas and transmitting a 1 W signal on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, putting it within the range of nearly any radio amateur. Orbiting the planet about once every 96 minutes, Sputnik 1 could be seen from Earth. Following the launch, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology’s HF radio station WWV even halted its nighttime 20 MHz transmissions to avoid interfering with the satellite’s signal.

Scientists studying it gained information about such things as the density of the upper atmosphere, deduced from orbital drag. The propagation of its signals also helped to better understand the ionosphere. The US launched its first artificial Earth satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958. 

Pell Elementary School in Newport became the first public school in Rhode Island to have a conversation with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

NEWPORT — Pell Elementary School became the first public school in Rhode Island to have a conversation with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station — with an invaluable assist from a ham-radio operator in Belgium.

Timing was critical to make the connection. The school relied on the operator, Jan Poppeliers, to call the station as its orbit passed over Europe around 1:45 p.m. Tuesday. With the station about 250 miles up in the atmosphere and cruising at about 18,000 mph, there was a roughly 10-minute stretch when it would be within range of Poppeliers’ location in Aartselaar.

The mood in the gym, where third- and fourth-graders were on speakerphone with Poppeliers, was tense as his first few attempts to connect with the station were met with static.

...It’s a ham radio thing

The first Five County 'It’s a Ham Radio Thing' event

This event may be ahead of its time or a bust. On Saturday October 6, 2018, starting at 9 AM and ending at 1:00 PM. We will have an informal get together to talk about ham radio.

We will have a ham radio station set up to demonstrate digital radio, Dstar, DMR and even Morse code. We will have a presentation on how to do the FEMA courses currently required for ham radio.

The location of the event is at the Thanksgiving Volunteer Fire Department, 2375 Thanksgiving Fire Rd, Selma, NC 27576.
Thanks to the Thanksgiving Volunteer Fire Department for the use of their facility.

If you would like to be the team leader for any ham radio mode sign up for this at Five County Interest Form.
http://n4mqu.com/2018/09/28/its-a-ham-radio-thing/

Online Fundraising Campaign Backs ISS Radio Upgrades

ARISS and AMSAT are supporting a FundRazr campaign to raise $150,000 for critical ham radio infrastructure upgrades on the International Space Station (ISS).

“ARISS is in critical need of infrastructure upgrades to ensure that programs such as talking to astronauts in space using Amateur Radio can continue,” ARISS International President Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said. ARISS seeks several upgrades, including new Amateur Radio communication and experiment capabilities, such as an enhanced voice repeater, updated digital Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS), and slow-scan television (SSTV) with image uplinks and downlinks in both US and Russian segments; next-generation radio systems that will support easier mode and capability transitions, and a multi-voltage power supply to support present and future radio capabilities.

Bauer points out that ARISS needs to build 10 next-generation radio systems to support the development of on-orbit operations, training, and long-term maintenance. This includes two units for on-orbit use (one unit each for the US and Russian segments), two flight spares, three units for training, one unit for testing, and two units for ground-based maintenance and troubleshooting. — Thanks to AMSAT News Service via Frank Bauer, KA3HDO 

THURSDAY EDITION: NE PATRIOT'S tonight, doesn't get much better than that.....Still getting used to the Icom 7600. I got the rtty and packet modes figured out, plugged in a keyboard, and made some contacts. Neat......Glad my kids are grown up....Only the Shadow knows.....Health and Wellness call for the mud duck located on the Cape Cod Canal! Bob caught his first fish of the year and hasn't been heard from since....creepy exhibit.....

ARRL, FCC Discussing Issue of Uncertified Imported VHF/UHF Transceivers

ARRL has taken a minor exception to the wording of a September 24 FCC Enforcement Advisory pertaining to the importation, marketing and sale of VHF and UHF transceivers and is in discussion with FCC personnel to resolve the matter. The Enforcement Advisory was in response to the importation into the US of certain radio products that are not FCC certified for use in any radio service, but identified as Amateur Radio equipment.

“While much of this equipment is actually usable on Amateur bands, the radios are also capable of operation on non-amateur frequencies allocated to radio services that require the use of equipment that has been FCC-certified,” ARRL said. “Such equipment is being marketed principally to the general public via mass e-marketers and not to Amateur Radio licensees.”

ARRL said the upshot is that the general public has been purchasing these radios in large quantities, and they are being used on the air by unlicensed individuals. “

“Radio amateurs have complained of increased, unlicensed use of amateur allocations by people who are clearly unlicensed and unfamiliar with Amateur radio operating protocols,” ARRL said. But while it supports the general tenor and intent of the Enforcement Advisory, ARRL said it disagrees with the FCC on one point.

“In several places, the Enforcement Advisory makes the point that ‘anyone importing, advertising or selling such noncompliant devices should stop immediately, and anyone owning such devices should not use them,’” ARRL pointed out. “The Advisory broadly prohibits the ‘use’ of such radios, but our view is that there is no such prohibition relative to licensed Amateur Radio use — entirely within amateur allocations — of a radio that may be capable of operation in non-amateur spectrum, as long as it is not actually used to transmit in non-amateur spectrum.

ARRL has had extensive discussions about this issue with FCC Wireless Bureau and Enforcement Bureau staff, and those discussions are ongoing.

“It is important to protect the flexibility of the Amateur Service as essentially an experimental radio service, but it is also very important to stop the unlawful importation and marketing of illegal radios in the United States and the use of those radios by unlicensed persons,” ARRL maintained. “We will keep our members informed as our discussions with FCC on this subject continue.”

Has anyone tried these connectors?

“Black Swan 18” Exercise to Test US Government/Amateur Radio Interoperability on 60 Meters

“Black Swan 18” is a communications exercise aiming to test how well responders, emergency management agencies, and non-government organizations (NGOs) activate, operate, and complete communication missions, specifically in terms of the volume, accuracy, and speed of radio traffic. The scenario for the October 4 – 10 Black Swan 18 will be a series of winter storms and associated events. ARRL Field Organization teams have been invited to adapt this activity as the basis of their annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET). Operational periods by participating organizations should not exceed 48 hours.

“In a high-impact disaster, response will need to include many organizations bringing their unique expertise and resources to bear in a coordinated fashion,” the Black Swan 18 announcement explains. “Black Swan 18 will test this ability to operate across geography and among complementary organizations. Cooperating forces include the Ohio Military Reserve (2nd Battalion), the ARRL Ohio and Iowa sections, and Air Force MARS.”

For this exercise, communication between US government radio stations and Amateur Radio stations is authorized on the five channels at 5 MHz where the Amateur Service has secondary status. Exercise communications must yield to real-world emergency communications. Interoperability will remain in effect for the duration of the exercise.

The exercise will run in three stages:

1. “Build-Up” is October 4 – 5, when organizations involved in preparation for large events or response to localized emergencies may wish to participate.

2. “Intense Action” is October 6 – 7, when most organizations will be establishing operating stations and handling radio traffic in support of emergency preparation, response, and recovery. Organizations that cannot participate during the “Intense Action” timeframe may run their own exercises in any 48-hour window during the scenario.

3. “Recovery” is October 8 – 10, when organizations preparing for and engaged in recovery operations may wish to participate.

Localized severe weather events and effects may cause activation in the week before or the week after the scheduled timeframe.

Ohio Military Reserve will provide exercise controllers on SHARES stations NNO5HA, NNO5HD, and NNO5HG. This activation has been approved by the FEMA Spectrum Manager. 

WEDNESDAY EDITION: Foggy start here on the island, but sun has been promised later in the day....Air Force One floating down a river.....Microsoft has headphones?....

Today a fellow Ham informs me that MFJ has put out it's New Products list, and there is the MFJ-2100 Octopus Antenna base!

http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-2100

Gee! Look familiar? I wonder where they got that idea from?
I think mine is still a bit better! While theirs also incorporates a 1:1 Balun, the unit is not weather sealed. I also use an SO-239 Bulkhead connector bolted to the bottom of the head to be able to carry the weight of LMR-400 or 213 cable at full height.. Theirs uses an RG-58/U dongle which I would suspect would be damaged under the load of such use over time. Mine also has a rain-hood to keep rain from getting to the PL-259 / SO-239 connection at the head and damaging the feed-line under conditions one would expect to find in emergency operations.....KA1BTK, GARDI

Spray-On Antennas Could Be the Wave of the Future, University Researchers Believe

Researchers at Drexel University’s College of Engineering report a breakthrough in nanomaterials technology that promises to make installing an antenna as easy as applying sunblock or bug spray. The University reported the research in a DrexelNOW article, “Drexel's Spray-On Antennas Could Be the Tech Connector of the Future.” The advance could mean wearable and invisible antennas that could find their place in the next generation of the Internet of things (IoT), and even have Amateur Radio applications.

“The ability to spray an antenna on a flexible substrate or make it optically transparent means that we could have a lot of new places to set up networks,” said Drexel Wireless Systems Laboratory Director and engineering professor Kapil Dandekar, a co-author of the research published recently in Science Advances.

“This technology could enable the truly seamless integration of antennas with everyday objects which will be critical for the emerging Internet of things,” Dandekar said.

In their paper, Dandekar and his colleagues laid out a method for spraying invisibly thin antennas made from a type of two-dimensional metallic material called MXene — a conductive, two-dimensional titanium carbide material — which can be dissolved in water to create an ink or paint. They said the exceptional conductivity of the material enables it to be employed as an RF radiator even when applied in a very thin, nearly invisible coating. The MXene antennas perform as well as those now being used in mobile devices, wireless routers, and other devices, the Drexel researchers said. In addition, the MXene materials were shown to be 50 times better than graphene and 300 times better than silver ink antennas in terms of preserving the quality of RF transmission.

“Current fabrication methods of metals cannot make antennas thin enough and applicable to any surface, in spite of decades of research and development to improve the performance of metal antennas,” said Yury Gogotsi, director of the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, who initiated and led the project PhD. “We were looking for two-dimensional nanomaterials, which have sheet thickness about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair; just a few atoms across, and can self-assemble into conductive films upon deposition on any surface. Therefore, we selected MXene as a candidate for ultra-thin antennas.”

“The MXene antenna not only outperformed the macro and micro world of metal antennas, we went beyond the performance of available nanomaterial antennas, while keeping the antenna thickness very low,” said Babak Anasori, a research assistant professor in the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute. “The thinnest antenna was as thin as 62 nanometers — about a thousand times thinner than a sheet of paper — and it was almost transparent.”

Unlike existing nanomaterial fabrication methods that require several steps, the Drexel research team’s spray-on antennas can be fabricated in a single step by airbrush spraying a water-based MXene ink, Anasori said. — Thanks to DrexelNow    

Radio Amateur Among International Space Station Crew Returning to Earth this Week

Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold, KE5DAU, will join Expedition 56 Commander Drew Feustel and Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev on an October 4 return voyage to Earth after more than about 6 months in space. They will travel in a Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft heading for a parachute-assisted landing on the Kazakh Steppe some 3 hours later.

The crew is completing a 197-day mission.

At an October 3 change-of-command ceremony, Feustel will formally hand over command of the ISS to crewmate Alexander Gerst, KF5ONO, of the European Space Agency. Gerst, Serena Auñón-Chancellor, KG5TMT, and Sergey Prokopyev will hold down the fort for a week until for one week until Nick Hague, KG5TMV, and Alexey Ovchinin launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a 6-hour journey to the ISS aboard the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft, to round out the five-person Expedition 57.

APRS balloon heading for British Isles and Europe

On Sunday morning, September 30, Bruce VE5BNC launched his first amateur radio floater balloon, VA5BNC-15, from Saskatoon 52.1N, 106.6W, altitude is about 6,700m

Writing on the UKHAS Google Group he says:

It survived the first night and has made it all the way from Saskatoon to somewhere off the east coast of Newfoundland. If I'm very lucky, it will make it across the pond in the next 48 hours [late Wednesday or Thursday].

It should switch to 144.800 MHz FM in the mid-Atlantic, but if there are any European stations that can listen on 144.390 MHz FM, that would be appreciated.

During the day, it beacons once per minute at 13 seconds after the minute and at night, it's on a roughly 15 minute cycle.

See the real-time track of VA5BNC-15 at
https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FVA5BNC-15&timerange=86400&tail=86400

Invitation to the world’s largest annual youth event

Two million young people from around the world are expected to take part in this year’s Jamboree-On-The-Air-Jamboree-On-The-Internet (JOTA-JOTI), the world’s biggest Scouting event

IARU Region 1 reports:

During JOTA-JOTI, which takes place this year from 19-21 October. Scouts and Guides will encounter numerous different languages and cultures in a worldwide learning experience that lasts all day and well into the night.

JOTA-JOTI is designed to make participants feel that they are truly part of a global Movement. Whatever their age, religion, colour, ability, or disability, everyone can join the annual travel-free Jamboree wherever they are in the world. JOTA-JOTI is always held on the third weekend of October.

Scouts use amateur radio and the Internet, to connect with each other over the JOTA-JOTI weekend. The initiative helps to promote cultural awareness, develop tolerance, and enhance sharing, collaboration and teamwork.

Some 20,000 licensed amateur radio operators put 12,000 radio stations on the air with state-of-the-art technology. This offers an excellent opportunity for young radio amateurs to inspire young Scouts with the charms of radio techniques. And for Scouts to share their world with radio amateurs of (nearly) their own age.

his could lead to follow-up activities during the Youngster month in December and field days e.g.

SSTV badges
One of the main activities for Scouts in this year’s JOTA is to exchange badges (as electronic pictures) via SSTV. With the target to let them experience a different technique combined with a well-known Scout activity to swap badges. SSTV has become so much more accessible with a laptop or smartphone and some software, combining the radio and the digital world. It is in particular for this activity that young amateur radio operators can play an important role in making the connections and discovering the possibilities of SSTV.

Join in
We invite all young amateur radio operators to get in touch with the nearest Scout group and join in the JOTA-JOTI. Likewise, we invite all local Scout group leaders to contact the amateur radio clubs in their region to ask for support by young amateurs for their JOTA-JOTI event.

To assist with finding a Scout group, radio operators may contact the National JOTA-JOTI Coordinator in their country. Email addresses are available at:
https://www.jotajoti.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/NJC-2018-4.pdf

To assist with finding young radio amateurs, Scout groups leaders may contact the youth coordinator of your IARU member society.

For more on JOTA-JOTI
http://www.world-jotajoti.info/

TUESDAY EDITION: After the boating death, yesterday someone got run over by a train.  How the hell do you get run over by a train? Somehow this goof got stuck under the train about 1/2 mile in the woods, the ME got lost in the woods trying to find him which sent out our crack police force on 4 wheelers to rescue  him, never a dull moment here in liberal land...Danvers High, a few towns away, has launched a "gender free" bathroom for the kids who just can't figure what the hell they are. Last year the boys were invading the girls room and claiming they "identified themselves" as a girl that day, so to combat the problem, they invented the "gender free" bathroom. .What could go wrong? ....well the teachers wont go into the gender free bathroom because they all identify themselves as a man or woman. Kids being smart found it was an ideal place to deal and use drugs and smoke butts without any interruption..Welcome to liberal Massachusetts...

Next steps on the road to WRC19

IARU volunteers have been working for three years to progress Agenda Item 1.1 for the World Radio Conference 2019. This agenda item seeks a Region 1 allocation at around 50 MHz for the amateur service in the Radio Regulations Table of Frequency Allocations, to align with the allocations in Regions 2 and 3.

Extensive work has been undertaken in the African Telecommunications Union, CEPT, Arab Spectrum Management Group, RCC and of course ITU to gain support for such an allocation rather than the current country-by-country allocations under Article 4.4 of the Regulations. IARU has represented the global voice of amateur radio in these meetings arguing that new applications in amateur radio require significant bandwidth at 50 MHz and has set out a proposed utilisation of the band which supports its claim. IARU has also engaged in extensive work on sharing studies using propagation models recognised by ITU and CEPT

After many weeks of planning and meetings in both regional and global forums post the WRC in 2015, the next step on the route to WRC19 took place last week, where CEPT project team PTD considered its position on this agenda item in preparation for the CEPT Conference Preparatory Group meeting in November and the ITU CPM in February 2019.

The work during this meeting was enhanced by the presence of EURAO which cooperated with IARU to seek the best possible outcome for the amateur service on this WRC-19 agenda item.

The Amateur Service has met strong opposition from a few nation states who argue that the 50 MHz band is already allocated to other services in their countries (following the closure of many  broadcasting stations in recent years which operated in this band) and believe that sharing the band presents problems

At this meeting two options were prepared the first preferred by the majority of CEPT administrations actively participating in discussions and proposes a 2 MHz secondary allocation for inclusion in Article 5 of the ITU Radio Regulations. The second option, which is the result of a major compromise brokered by the amateur movement following the last PTD meeting and is preferred by EURAO and IARU, would see a 500 kHz primary allocation from 50.0 – 50.5 MHz and a secondary allocation from 50.5 – 52.0 MHz. Either option would improve the current 50 MHz international mechanisms which permit amateur operation on a non-interference, non-protected basis. These options will be further considered at the next PTD meeting.

It is hoped that the co-operation between IARU and EURAO will continue in future CEPT activities, which are relevant to amateur radio.

Amateur Radio Volunteers in Indonesia Link Earthquake Zone with Outside World

Following a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on September 28, members of International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) member-society ORARI and other volunteers have been providing emergency communication for community and government interests. The quake and tsunami destroyed the city of Palu, completely cutting power and telephone connections, as well as the cellular communication infrastructure.

New IARU Region 3 Disaster Communication Coordinator Dani Halim, YB2TJV, said Amateur Radio operators in Indonesia immediately responded to the unfolding disaster, establishing an emergency net on 7.110 MHz. Amateur Radio volunteers from other regions also pitched in to support radio communication for emergency news on 7.110 MHz and 7.065 MHz. ORARI has asked that radio amateurs not involved in the emergency response avoid those frequencies. ORARI also activated the LAPAN-ORARI IO-86 satellite as a back-up communication channel. Some radio amateurs with mobile stations have traveled to the affected region to help.

According to Budi Santoso, YF1AR, on Java Island, the local Palu ORARI representative Ronny Korompot, YB8PR, was among the first contacted. Through his mobile station, he reported on conditions and the response, including evacuations. Sutrisno Sofingi, YB8NT, was also heard on 7.110 MHz using an emergency station he assembled at the disaster site. He said Amateur Radio was the only available communication with the outside world.

Amateur Radio also has assisted government agencies following severe damage to the telecommunication infrastructure. Hams operating on 2 meters were communicating information on which roads were open to allow traffic from the outside.

Halim reported that communication was established from the Luwuk Disaster Management Agency some 430 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter to obtain information on landslides and blocked roads and highways.

Salmin Sahidin, YB8IBD, in Southeast Sulawesi has been live streaming audio of the activity on 7.110 MHz via his Facebook page.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami has claimed upward of 900 lives and caused widespread devastation. Some victims have been reported to be trapped in the debris. The Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency has told news media that, in addition to communication, heavy equipment for rescue operations is limited.  — Thanks to IARU Region 3 and Budi Santoso, YF1AR 

A few hams set up portable stations and antennas in Rockport to simulate an emergency setup Sunday afternoon, I missed
 it choosing to watch the NE Patriots game instead..



New England Hams you might run across 75 meters.........

K1TP- Jon....Editor of As The World Turns....
2017 HRO CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON
W1GEK- Big Mike....Nearfest Cook, big motor home, electronics software engineer ...
AA1SB- Neil...Living large traveling the country with his girlfriend...loves CW
N1YX- Igor....peddles quality Russian keys, software engineer
K1BGH...Art.....Restores cars and radio gear, nice fella...
N1XW.....Mike-easy going, Harley riding kind of guy!
K1JEK-Joe...Easy going, can be found at most ham flea market ...Cobra Antenna builder..
KA1GJU- Kriss- Tower climbing pilot who cooks on the side at Hosstrader's...
 W1GWU-Bob....one of the Hosstrader's original organizers, 75 meter regular, Tech Wizard!!!
 K1PV- Roger....75 meter regular, easy going guy...
 W1XER...Scott....easy going guy, loves to split cordwood and hunt...
 WS1D- Warren- "Windy" - Bullnet
KB1VX- Barry- the picture says it all, he loves food!
KC1BBU- Bob....the Mud Duck from the Cape Cod Canal, making a lot of noise.
W1STS- Scott...philosopher, hat connoisseur,
KB1JXU- Matthew...75 meter regular...our token liberal Democrat out of VT
KA1BXB-Don....75 meter Regular......residing on the Cape of Cod, flying planes and playing radio
KMIG-Rick....75 Meter Regular....teaches the future of mankind, it's scary!
K1PEK-Steve..Founder of Davis-RF....my best friend from high school 
K9AEN-John...Easy going ham found at all the ham fests
K1BXI- John.........Dr. Linux....fine amateur radio op ....wealth of experience...
K1BQT.....Rick....very talented ham, loves his politics, has designed gear for MFJ...
W1KQ- Jim-  Retired Air Force Controller...told quite a few pilots where to go!
N1OOL-Jeff- The 3936 master plumber and ragchewer...
K1BRS-Bruce- Computer Tech of 3936...multi talented kidney stone passing ham...
K1BGH- Arthur, Cape Cod, construction company/ice cream shop, hard working man....
W1VAK- Ed, Cape Cod, lots of experience in all areas, once was a Jacques Cousteus body guard....
KD1ZY- Warren....3910 regular with WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE signal
N1YSU- Bob,  easy going, kind of like Mr. Rogers until politics are brought up then watch out...
K1BNH- Bill- Used to work for a bottled gas company-we think he has been around nitrous oxide to long .

Silent KeyVA2GJB- Graham...one of the good 14313 guys back in the day.
Silent Key K1BHV- David...PITA
W1JSH- Mort...Air Force man
Silent Key K1MAN--Glen....PITA
Silent KeyKB1CJG-"Cobby"- Low key gent can be found on many of the 75 meter nets.........
Silent KeyWB1AAZ- Mike, Antrim, NH, auto parts truck driver-retired
Silent KeyWB1DVD- Gil....Gilly..Gilmore.....easy going, computer parts selling, New England Ham..
 Silent Key W1OKQ- Jack....3936 Wheeling and Dealing......keeping the boys on there toes....
 Silent Key W1TCS- Terry....75 meter regular, wealth of electronic knowledge...
Silent Key WIPNR- Mack....DXCC Master, worked them all!.. 3864 regular for many years...
Silent Key WILIM- Hu....SK at 92... 3864 regular for many years...
 Silent Key N1SIE- Dave....Loves to fly
Silent Key:N1WBD- Big Bob- Tallest ham, at 6'10", of the 3864 group
Silent Key: W1FSK-Steve....Navy Pilot, HRO Salesman, has owned every radio ever built!
Silent Key: W4NTI-Vietnam Dan....far from easy going cw and ssb op on 14275/313
 Silent Key:K1FUB-Bill- Loved ham radio....